Our audience really enjoyed this thought provoking talk from Andrea Ross, Professor of Environmental law at the University of Dundee.

In May 2010, the UK Coalition Government set itself the objective of becoming the ‘Greenest Government yet’. But in July 2010 it  announced it was disbanding the Sustainable Development Commission.

By May 2011 it was being criticised in an open letter from 15 diverse organisations of losing its way on environmental issues and the ‘green economy’ and by May 2012 it had still failed to produce a new sustainable development strategy.

Moreover, while the Government appears fixated on using the term ‘sustainable’ regularly, it does so with little regard to the long term health of the planet preferring instead to focus on the ‘sustainability’ of the economy.

In her talk, Andrea highlighted this lack of leadership for sustainable development at the UK level. She also explored various ways of challenging short term thinking as well as promoting and supporting concern for the Earth’s limits.

This event was kindly hosted by the cafe at The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum